Description Relative to the Prior Art
The prior art teaches a variety of different devices for tethering or harnessing small children. These include,tethers or leashes intended to allow a child to walk alongside a parent or other adult; harnesses used to carry a child on the body of an adult; walking aids, providing support for a young child just learning to walk, and the like. These inventions are all intended to provide safety and restraint for children, especially preventing them from being inadvertently separated from the supervising adult.
Most of these inventions utilized straps or webs, attached to the child either at the wrist, at the waist, or, in the case of harnesses, at the torso.
The vast majority of these devices are used to restrain or support individual children. The current invention, in comparison, is used for restraining and controlling groups of indefinite numbers of children. Such a device is useful for schools, camps, or other entities which care for young children, and seek to physically control them during trips, outings, and the like.
The current invention, in the simplest form of the preferred embodiment, can be used with up to three children. However, it is modular in that it can be expanded indefinitely by adding components. The expansion in this manner is simple to use and inherently inexpensive. The entire restraint is constructed of strap or web material, with plastic quick-release connectors and junctions for adding or removing modules. And it is safe and reliable.